India Minister: Difficult to Meet Coal Demand

By

Saurabh Chaturvedi And

Prasenjit Bhattacharya

Jan. 30, 2013 9:11 a.m. ET

NEW DELHI--It looks like people in India will have to get used to blackouts, as the country's coal minister said it would be difficult for the domestic coal industry to keep up with demand from power plants.

Asia's third-largest economy relies on coal-fired power plants for the majority of its electricity needs. Increasingly stringent environmental regulations have made it difficult to raise output of the pollutive fuel, while power producers are reluctant to turn to imported coal because it is difficult for them to pass...